The council says it needs external advice as landfill tax is a "highly specialised and complex area".

Councillor Rodney Berman, former Lib Dem leader of the authority, said: "The fact this dispute is still on-going and has cost Cardiff’s taxpayers over £300,000 so far is shocking. The council has previously refused to indicate how much HMRC thinks it may have under-paid in landfill tax, but if it has paid this much to date just to get external advice then we are clearly talking about a very significant sum – probably millions of pounds. So the cost may be much greater by the time this issue is resolved.

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“The present Labour administration’s handling of the council’s finances is looking increasingly chaotic. Spending in various council departments is repeatedly going significantly over-budget meaning spending in other areas needs to be hacked back in order to get the books to balance.

“There are also increasing signs of incompetence in Labour’s handing of the council’s waste department. We have seen indications of increasing problems with fly-tipping, garden waste collections in some parts of the city were recently suspended without this being properly communicated to residents, and the household waste recycling centre at Wedal Road was shut in March last year with no sign to date of any promised replacement."

Lamby Way landfill site

Councillor Michael Michael, cabinet member for clean streets, recycling and environment, said using specialist expertise to support the council on a complex landfill tax issue that occurred in 2015 "is a far cry from the situation when councillor Berman was leader of the council" between 2004 and 2012.

"Back then consultants were used day-in day-out as a matter of course, at rates of £1,000 per day, and at a cost of millions of pounds to Cardiff taxpayers," councillor Michael said. "We will take no lessons from him on the use of consultants.

“We currently pick up 24 million bin collections per year, and our collections rate is 99.91%. Our record of picking up fly tipping within the five day target is around 99.87%.

"Once again Berman and the Lib Dem’s choose to criticise council workers instead of supporting the fantastic work they do in difficult conditions.”

A Cardiff council spokesman said: “The council is having an ongoing discussion with HMRC relating to landfill tax. This is a highly specialised and complex area which requires external advice to ensure the council’s position is protected.”